National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Moffett Federal Airfield
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

Reply to Attn of: M: 19-20
July 23, 1996

The Honorable Ralph Faravelli
Mayor, City of Mountain View
City Hall
500 Castro Street
Mountain View, Ca 94039

Dear Mayor Faravelli:

I want to again express my appreciation to the City of Mountain View in assisting our process of gathering community comment related to our consideration of limited access by U.S. Air Force-sponsored Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) aircraft at Moffett Federal Airfield. However, given the volume and nature of questions generated from our public presentations, the requests for additional analysis, suggestions of exploring alternative ways to address the operating deficit, as well as general concerns articulated by the public, it is clear that there is much additional information to be provided to the communities before we can finalize our Environmental Assessment and make any decisions regarding this potential use of Moffett Federal Airfield. Therefore, as indicated in my July 16 letter, it will not be possible to meet our original target date of August 9 for the release of the Environmental Assessment. Instead, I expect completion of the above actions, and one I discuss below, to require an additional six months.

Based upon the public meetings on CRAF, we feel the need to work more closely with the cities to research possibilities of a potential comprehensive solution to the revenue issues at Moffett Federal Airfield. To that end, we want to propose the establishment of a Community Advisory Committee with the cities. The Committee would review all possibilities within our Comprehensive Use Plan for Moffett Federal Airfield and would make recommendations. You and Sunnyvale Mayor Robin Parker have indicated the desire for a process to give the public a way to learn more about Moffett and its opportunities and limits of use. We believe that the Community Advisory Committee would fulfill this purpose and continue our pursuit of community awareness and openness. We would like you to join us in the establishment of the Committee, including membership and structure.

The Environmental Assessment on CRAF will take months to complete and we would like to include that report as a resource for the Community Advisory Committee to use in developing the potential comprehensive solutions for Moffett Federal Airfield. We believe that the efforts of the Community Advisory Committee can be finished with a report by January, 1997. We will not pursue any federal legislation to enable CRAF aircraft to utilize Moffett Federal Airfield until the final report of the Community Advisory Committee has been reviewed by NASA and the Sunnyvale and Mountain View City Councils.

In light of the incomplete information and our desire to incorporate community inputs into our future planning, we would request the portponement of a ballot measure on CRAF until at least the report of the Community Advisory Committee. A vote before the report would be premature and potentially jeopardize future options.

We await your response to our proposal so we can move forward together toward a mutually beneficial future for Moffett Federal Airfield.

Sincerely,
(signed)
Ken K. Munechika
Director